Some websites use the OpenID standard so that users don’t even need to type a password to sign in. While Google does not yet support the usage of OpenID for replacing passwords on its own sites, we are involved in the OpenID community’s efforts to research how to best implement that type of support.

As a next step in those community efforts, we announced today the use of OpenID for the Google signup process.

Currently, Google only offers this feature for Yahoo! users. However, as it is based on an Internet standard, we plan to use it in the future with other email providers that add support for this usage of OpenID and related standards like OAuth, such as in the Microsoft Live identity APIs.

Other websites that need to verify a user’s email address can also implement this technique using Yahoo!’s OpenID API. In addition, it can be used to verify the addresses of Gmail and Google Apps users because those email systems expose the necessary APIs for OpenID. For example, Plaxo is one of the many websites that takes advantage of this feature of Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.

16 comments
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Interesting (i.e. previously unheard) use of OpenID APIs :) However, I would like Google to become a Relying party for all services, especially for Google Apps Standard Edition. This way we could potentiality use Verisign's OpenID with StrongAuth for signing into Google. Alternatively, if Google were to become a OpenID provider w/ Strong, we can forget about Verisign and RSA altogether ;)

Google just made it easier for people with Yahoo accounts to sign up for a Google account. With one click, you can now use your Yahoo credentials to sign up for a Google account such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader, or even AdWords. The one-click sign-up is done using OpenID, which both Google and Yahoo support.

This may seem to be a new deal but this has been around for a few years. Yes it is a wonderful thing that yahoo and google work so easily with each other. It is easy to use this technology and hopefully it will continue to improve our web experiences.